Tip Leads To 2 Arrests In Bank Robbery

HAMPTON — A tip from a witness led police to a Newport News man and woman suspected of robbing the Cenit Bank in Hampton Tuesday afternoon.

Tracking down a license plate number provided by the witness, police first located a Cadillac believed to have been used by the suspects to flee after the heist.

Early Wednesday morning, police arrested John Mark Correa, 45, of the first block of Fontaine Road and 30-year-old Barbara A. Stokes of the 300 block of Susan Constance Drive. Each of them was charged with robbery, three counts of abduction and six counts of use of a firearm in commission of a felony.

The Cadillac is registered to Stokes. Investigators believe she waited outside the Executive Drive bank while Correa went inside and demanded money.

"She was driving the car for the get-away," said Hampton police Sgt. Jeff Walden.

The robbery occurred just before noon Tuesday. Police said a man walked into the bank with a bandanna over the lower portion of his face. He pointed a handgun at a female teller who handed over an undisclosed amount of cash. The gunman then ordered four employees into a back room and fled the bank, police said.

"Luckily, we had someone who saw the guy run out," Walden said. "They were able to write down a license plate for us."

Six hours after the robbery, detectives found Stokes and Correa together. After questioning, each of them was charged in the heist.

Correa has a history of robberies in the area, including a federal robbery conviction for a bank heist in Richmond. In 1994, he pleaded guilty to two robberies. One was at a beauty salon at the Newmarket Shopping Center and netted him $400 in cash.

The other robbery was at a camera store where Correa made off with $4,200 worth of video cameras and $280 in cash. At the time, he was also a suspect in seven other robberies in Norfolk, Hampton and York County.

Stokes and Correa remained at the Hampton Jail Wednesday night.

Mark LaFlamme can be reached at 247-7870 or by e-mail at mlaflamme@dailypress.com